|
Post by mickthecactus on May 3, 2020 20:25:11 GMT
French onion sellers. Did they really come across the channel and cycle up to North London where I lived?
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on May 3, 2020 20:31:01 GMT
Australia changed from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents in Feb 1966. PM Menzies was a devoted subject of HM Elizabeth II and declared that in honour to her the currency would be a 'Royal' divided into 100 cents. It is a wonder you in the northern hemisphere did not hear the screams of mockery and derision that rang around the country. Eventually he was made to see reason and we escaped an almost Trump-like situation. I would have liked the new currency to carrry the slang names that were used for the old currency. 1 cent = a penny, a trey= 3 pence, a zak = 6 pence (5 cents)a bob= a shilling or 10 cents . Among the notes were brick and a bluey ...I've forgotten the rest. Some of those were definitely Aussie slang. 2 shillings were two bob (also a derogatory term about somebody- he’s no good. He’s two bob), half a crown (two shillings and sixpence) was also half a dollar. Don’t know about the brick and the bluey but a ten shilling note was brick colour and a five pound note was blue. A pound note was geen.
|
|
|
Post by questa on May 4, 2020 0:12:51 GMT
Yes, you have it, Mick. and the pound note was a quid Anyone who was "not quite there was "2 bob in the quid". A race horse may be rated as "London to a brick". A really stupid crazy person is "As mad as a 2 bob watch". Another expression is "I wouldn't be dead for quids" meaning life is good at the moment.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 4, 2020 6:32:46 GMT
French onion sellers. Did they really come across the channel and cycle up to North London where I lived? Yes, and south-west London, where I was brought up. My mother liked the opportunity to practise her French, and my father was always amused that it was M. Bastard who called on us. And they were good onions, albeit pricey. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 4, 2020 6:51:02 GMT
That's interesting because I had absolutely never heard of this. But the Bretons are a strange people with whom I have never had an affinity.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on May 4, 2020 6:55:02 GMT
Well I never, thanks Patrick.
I was watching ‘allo ‘allo which prompted my enquiry.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 4, 2020 7:02:49 GMT
|
|
|
Post by bjd on May 4, 2020 7:51:15 GMT
For some reason I didn't have any sound, but that policeman in his helmet buying onions looks like something straight out of Monty Python.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on May 4, 2020 7:57:29 GMT
That's interesting because I had absolutely never heard of this. But the Bretons are a strange people with whom I have never had an affinity. Interesting. I had not heard of this either, but anyone I have talked to who goes on vacation to Brittany really likes the people. It's easterners who have the reputation of being unfriendly and cold.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on May 4, 2020 8:03:02 GMT
He also found himself in Cornwall; the Cornish and Breton languages are very close.
Lots of Bretons here; also lots of Normands.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on May 4, 2020 10:00:59 GMT
Amazing. They bought land and built houses just on the proceeds of those onion sales.
|
|
|
Post by questa on May 4, 2020 10:33:52 GMT
Did you all save your old stockings and pantyhose and hang your onions one at a time into the stocking, tie a knot. add another onion, make another knot etc until the onions were all hanging in a cool room? When we had a glut of eggs from the chickens we got cardboard boxes filled them with sand, rubbed a thin layer of vaseline all over the eggs and buried them pointy end down in the moist sand. They would be fresh and good looking even after several months.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on May 4, 2020 11:00:27 GMT
No, but I have always lived in cities with stores.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 4, 2020 13:44:12 GMT
I am old enough to remember but I had forgotten how quickly one side of an LP finishes now that I have a retro turntable again.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on May 4, 2020 16:48:00 GMT
Most interesting video, Patrick, even with the insanely annoying caption method. This is something I never heard of before & I was fascinated that two people born the same year as I & from different parts of London remembered it so vividly. When we had a glut of eggs from the chickens we got cardboard boxes filled them with sand, rubbed a thin layer of vaseline all over the eggs and buried them pointy end down in the moist sand. That's a new one! I think anyone who every aspired to vegetable growing knows the stocking trick for onions, but never heard that about eggs. I'd heard of using isinglass and also something called waterglass, but apparently the method of sealing the shells with a greasy substance was quite common. When I bought supermarket eggs in the US, they were always all set in their containers of one dozen in the same way. Now I can't remember if it was point up or point down. It is most common here to buy eggs loose in the quantity desired. I've asked if it matters if they're stored point up or down, & everyone seems amazed that I'd ask such an odd question & they say it doesn't matter. Kerouac, I suppose this means that you already had an LP collection before getting the turntable. I can't remember if LPs were typically 15 minutes to a side or 30 minutes.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on May 4, 2020 16:56:14 GMT
At least 30 minutes I would have thought.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 4, 2020 18:47:07 GMT
If you calculate six or seven songs per side at an average of 3 or 4 minutes each, you only get u to 28 minutes max.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on May 4, 2020 20:01:05 GMT
I am old enough to remember but I had forgotten how quickly one side of an LP finishes now that I have a retro turntable again. I did notice that, in your photos of your garret in the redecoration thread. We have had a turntable forever, but the latest one does not pick its stylus arm up and shut itself off at the end of an album. I HATE the shk shk shk amplified over the speakers till I can get there and raise the arm. Plus, our old one had a stackable spindle that could hold four or more albums and drop a new one as the previous one ended. Then you could turn the whole stack and listen to the other sides. Heaven! We have probably 5 feet of shelves loaded with LPs standing on edge. A collection that began in the 1960’s and 70’s. We have TWO dedicated record album stores in our town, and one refurbishes and resells turntables, too.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 4, 2020 20:15:57 GMT
I loved being able to stack records.
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on May 4, 2020 21:12:41 GMT
Google says about 23 minutes though could be longer but the quality depreciates.
When my parents owned a pub we had a juke box. When the technician came to change the records or give it a service he'd set it up when he left that I could have about a dozen free plays. The man who came to do the pinball machine used to do likewise. I got really quite good at that.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 4, 2020 21:18:02 GMT
I was a pinball addict, and I still play pinball on the rare occasions when I find a machine.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on May 4, 2020 21:21:13 GMT
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on May 4, 2020 21:21:24 GMT
There is certainly a technique for getting the most out of them, and not hitting the 'tilt' point.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 4, 2020 21:29:27 GMT
I have never jostled a pinball machine except when the ball got stuck and it became OBLIGATORY to tilt. I hated when that happened. I have an album of Tommy by the Who, autographed by Keith Moon, for coming in 3rd at a pinball competition in Los Angeles in front of the Aquarius Theatre where the rock opera was being presented.
Not that I am trying to one up you.
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on May 5, 2020 4:30:54 GMT
Love playing pinball! Next meet-up, let's have a little tourney. I can't play worth a @#$% until I've had a couple of beers.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 5, 2020 6:58:08 GMT
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on May 5, 2020 7:46:21 GMT
for coming in 3rd at a pinball competition Well done. Shame the only other two competition entrants beat you.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 10, 2020 13:43:44 GMT
When I was in first grade, we had moulds in class to make people or animals out of plaster of Paris. Then we would paint them and take them home proudly where our parents were not even allowed to throw them directly in the bin where they belonged.
I believe this was before the invention of macaroni necklaces and other things made out of food, because it was probably still close enough to the war for people not to want to waste such items.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on May 13, 2020 7:17:39 GMT
I wonder how many people are old enough to remember the smell of rotten eggs, which must have been common at some time or other. I am not old enough since I have never smelled a rotten egg myself and remain mystified at how often "the smell of rotten eggs" is used to describe various unpleasant odours.
|
|
|
Post by whatagain on May 13, 2020 8:37:40 GMT
When i was a kid we had small balls that would explose on thd floor and liberate an awful smell of sulfur that was said to be yhe samd as rotten eggs. We called these boules puantes - smelling balls
|
|